SABC Sport general manager Gary Rathbone has asked fight fans to be patient and give the public broadcaster time in order to get it right when it comes to boxing coverage on its television platforms.
Rathbone was responding to questions from Ink Sport on whether the SABC has measures in place to make sure that the transmission of live boxing tournaments is not disrupted in the middle of fights as it was the case during Sunday’s tournament in Johannesburg.
The SABC cut off its coverage of the vacant South African featherweight title contest between eventual winner Asanda Gingqi and Abdul-Aziz Kunert just as the fight was getting interesting much to the chagrin of boxing fans around the country.
“We will be mindful not to allow a title fight like that to be disrupted on air again,” Rathbone said.
The SABC Sport boss added that the public broadcaster is planning to spread its boxing coverage to other provinces as well. The SABC has so far screened live tournaments from Limpopo and Gauteng.
“Yes, we definitely want to ensure coverage from around the country. But please bear with us, we build this up step by step,” Rathbone said.
“We have very limited resources at the SABC. So we can’t do everything we want to do in one go. But we will get there. Certainly, Eastern Cape is very high on our list.”
